Arizona Demos Log On For Primary

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Arizona Demos Log On For Primary

The first Internet election of national consequence kicked off in Arizona Tuesday with lots of fanfare and little in the way of problems.

The Grand Canyon state began conducting its Democratic Primary election over the Internet at 12:01 a.m. PST Tuesday, when a government employee made history by casting the first ballot.

It is the first election of its kind – unless you count a January election in Alaska when voters participated in the state's Republican Party straw poll balloting hosted by Bellevue, Washington-based VoteHere. Of the total 4,000 votes, 35 were cast via the Internet.

So far, election.com, the Garden City, New York-based company formerly known as Votation.com that was selected to host Arizona's Democratic primary, has done better.

As of mid-Tuesday, over 6,000 of Arizona's 823,000 registered Democrats had cast their digital votes, according to Election.com spokeswoman Maria Rhose.

"It's really exciting that so many people are interested in this," she said.

From there, voters clicked through a series of screens that ask for their individual seven digit pin number which was mailed out on 23 February, as well as other identifying information including name and address.

When the process is complete, a user receives an on-screen certificate of confirmation that doubles as a souvenir.

Voting via the Internet will continue through Saturday, when those that wish to cast their ballots the old fashioned way will be voting.